James Lowe: Chris Ashton's apology, Gibson-Park relationship and Toulouse task

James Lowe. 

James Lowe says that Chris Ashton apologised for comments made 18 months ago when the pair spoke after the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final between Leicester Tigers and Leinster at Welford Road.

Ashton had described his fellow wing as ‘too big, too heavy and too slow’ after Lowe had been unable to catch Jonny May during an England-Ireland game at Twickenham in late 2020 and last weekend’s contest was their first time to cross paths since.

The Tigers wing did manage to get over the try line shortly after half-time five days ago but it was Lowe’s Leinster who progressed to the semi-finals and the former England player took the opportunity to hold his hand up at the final whistle.

“He just apologised, obviously. He said he was just caught in the moment and he obviously didn’t mean it. He said that he enjoyed the way I played. He loved how much I’ve grown as a player and that was it. And I said, ‘Yup, that’s alright.’ “But at the end of the day he made his bed and he has got to sleep in it. But fair play, I understand he may have said some things he may not have meant in the heat of the moment. When you’re on live TV that’s what happened. That’s what you say.” Lowe didn’t get on the scoresheet himself but it was the first time in seven Leinster games that’s happened. Eleven tries in his previous six appearances demonstrate just how deadly he has been, but he found the Tigers game to be a “frustrating” experience.

Extensive watering of the pitch before kick-off made clear exactly what type of game was in store but Leinster – and Lowe, in particular – coped brilliantly with the home team’s kicking game and even used it to launch their own attacking thrusts.

The almost cosmic understanding between Lowe and scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park, not least in their own 22, has become a potent weapon with the pair liable to launch quick counters when opponents seem to least expect them.

“Yeah, it’s a very obviously New Zealand thing to do, the quick tap. I know I have to move back and he’s kind of like chirping away the whole time. Any time he might throw a skip ball to me, or vice versa, or draw back on the inside, it’s all communication.” One such ploy sent Hugo Keenan haring up the left touchline and from one end of the pitch to the other in Leicester and Gibson-Park’s influence was stamped all over the park given his standard of service and ability to steal ball at a couple of rucks.

Lowe lauded a player who had to play second fiddle to Luke McGrath for much of his time with Leinster but who, on being challenged by senior coach Stuart Lancaster, has made himself first-choice for club and for his adopted country.

“He’s playing fantastic, isn’t he? He is the quickest nine to the ball, hands down. I don’t think anyone is going to argue that. He gets it and he shifts the ball. And when you break down all you want from a nine, that is it: speed to ruck and then you want the pass.

“He is number one if you ask me. I think he is quicker than (Antoine) Dupont to the ball. He has a whippier pass but then you’re comparing apples to pears because Dupont controls the game so well. He is a different beast.” The same could be said about this week’s task compared to the Tigers.

Leicester are a physically imposing side but Ugo Mola’s French and European champions take that to another level and they harness it with an all-court attacking game that asks all sorts of questions of opposing defences.

Lowe noted everything from Toulouse’s daunting tight five, the quality of their loose forwards, the effectiveness of their patterns of play around the ruck, the influence of Dupont (of course), Romain Ntamack and so much more.

But he did it with an air of defiance.

“There's a lot to their game to digest but our system doesn't change because of the personnel on their team,” he insisted. “We're not creating a new defensive structure because of their attacking flair.” Lowe is the man who brings something different to Leinster’s game so it was interesting when he landed on the team’s defence as their biggest area of improvement since last year’s loss at this same semi-final stage to La Rochelle.

An entertaining talker, jokes were kept to a premium this week and his reply when teed up to gush about the star power sprinkled across the four semi-finalists spoke volumes about the no frills nature of what lies ahead.

“Who can get in front and hold a lead?” he asked rhetorically. “Who can exit well? Who can get up and make a lineout steal like James Ryan did twice? Two massive steals at the weekend. It’s those little things that win you games.”